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Like A Cat To Water 09/15/13
Participants Hayate Uzumaki, Dubu Sarutobi Sink or Swim HayateUzumaki: The images moved about in his mind once more, the same as every night since that day. It had always been said that the key to unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan was to not only see, but to feel your closest friend die. And now, the same as every time Hyate slept, the same dream was coming over, the same memory. Hayate, Hitomi and Hayate Fuma had been sent on a mission to protect a foreign officer. Not only was it to be the awakening of the Uzumaki boy's Mangekyo Sharingan, it was also to be the death of his friend. The images played over and over of the Fuma boy screaming in agony as he was brutally tortured and slowly killed, while Hayate and Hitomi were restrained and forced to watch, prized like animals for their dojutsu. Upon watching the life seep from his friend and feeling his pain, did Hayate's ultimate form of Sharingan emerge, unleashing his Amaterasu for the first time. Then the same as always, the image was covered with black fire. And Hayate opened his eyes. He sat up in his bed, the rain tapping against the windows of his apartment, the sky a dull cloudy grey. He pulled himself out of his bed and went over the tall window adjacent to his bed and stared out into the village. His father had tried several times to seal the dream, but to no avail. Still, it could not be helped, and there was work to be done. He had students to teach. Walking over to the bedside table, he looked at the alarm clock. 7am. At least 2 hours before the day began. Walking into the bathroom, Hayate undressed and stepped into the shower, putting the water on a particularly hot setting today, stinging his body at first, but soon becoming comfortable as the water ran over him and his long hair. He wondered whether Dubu had managed to set her leaf alight yet. Or whether she had given up or forgotten about it. Most likely. After a while, he emerged from the shower and dried himself off, going to the airing cupboard and pulling on his trousers, before walking over to the kitchen area and brewing himself some tea. As the water boiled, he heard a small tap at the window, the rain getting heavier. But then the tap sounded again, louder this time, and once again as Hayate turned round and almost knocked the kettle off the hob, seeing Dubu standing outside the window, rapidly knocking on it. Dubu: Dubu brushed her brown, thick hair back. Almost giving up on catching his attention and going to the front door like any normal person would. But then she looked up, the look on his face was priceless. With one of her famous cheesy grins she waved at him casually. Her nose and cheeks bright red from the cold, black hoodie drenched. “LOOK!” She shouted simply, sniffing back some boogies and opening the palm of her other hand; showing ashes that were left from the leaf he gave her roughly 20 hours ago. “I did it! No cheating, I promise!” She kept shouting, with the grin still up and brightening her tanned face. Oh, how proud she actually was to accomplish her goal, and hopefully begin training that’s a little rougher than this. She pointed to the front door, and without any further screeching through the window, she walked over to them. “I actually did it.” She muttered one more time, to herself while she played with the ash in the palm of her hand, getting her fingertips and nails covered in it. HayateUzumaki: Well, that was one way to announce your presence. Hayate watched as her as she beamed, showing him the remnants of her leaf and trying to shout over the pouring rain. If anything, she certainly had spirit. After recovering from his initial shock, Hayate chuckled. Although he had never been much of a people person, he was glad to have a team of such enthusiastic Genin. It certainly made life a lot easier. Moving to the front door, he opened it, revealing a sopping wet Dubu, her clothes leaking and drenching the hallway floor. Hayate rolled his eyes. "Come in then." He closed the door as she walked in but not before stopping her before she made it to the kitchen floor. "The bathroom's in there." He pointed to a side door. "First of all, get in there and change. You can use whatever you find in my airing cupboard for now. I'm going to show you a very useful fire related life skill; drying your clothes quickly." As he shooed her off to the bathroom, he walked back over to the kettle. "I'm making tea. From the look of it, you need some. Have you had any breakfast?" he just hoped she wouldn't complain she couldn't find anything, while also now aware of the fact he was topless in front of a student. Oh well, worse could have happened. "Make sure to rinse your hair out as well." he called. Dubu: “Do you have a bin?” She asked, straight after stepping into his house. Then, without even getting a response she was already shooed off to the bathroom to dry herself off. Furrying her brows at him, she shook her hair right in his face, getting the water all over him, after handing him the pile of ashes. “There, you can bin it then Sensei.” She muttered, casually walking past him and into the bathroom. She locked the door and once again, shouted. “I haven’t had anything to eat since five in the afternoon!” She looked around the bathroom with a little amazement. Weird to see male with a rather clean bathroom. No hair lying around, no dirty towels stacked up on each other. Very strange. She touched the nearby towel that was hanging on the door, but it was still damp. Going through the couple of drawers she called out again. “Where do you keep towels?!” But after couple of seconds she spoke up again. “Nevermind!” And grabbed first one that caught her eye. With matter of minutes she was all nice and dry again, with her thick hair really fluffy and bouncing with every little step she made. From his cupboard she grabbed a kimono top and wrapped it around her sickly-thin frame. She looked down, at her bare little toes and wriggled them about. “Uh… so cold.” Muttering out, she grabbed onto the pile of wet clothes that were lying on the ground and finally decided to make her way back to the kitchen. Dumping the pile outside the kitchen door, Dubu walked through them, pulling the over-sized kimono further onto her chest and burying her hands in sleeves, she sat herself down on one of the chairs, putting her legs up and the soft, black fabric over her bare knees. “I told you, I will do it in 24 hours.” She spoke out after a minute of awkward silence. HayateUzumaki: The water boiled as he took the kettle from the hob and put it aside as her shout came through. Five in the afternoon.....what was wrong with this girl? He bent down to the cupboard and took out a pack of rice, boiling up some more water in a pan and chucking 2 servings in there. Meanwhile, he took two eggs and some pork slices out of his fridge and began to fry them. Even in her outfit, she looked terribly underweight. He yawned loudly before he blow a loose strand of hair from his face. The door opened and Dubu emerged in a fairly oversized kimono, gripping it tight around her frame as she made her way to the kitchen table, seating herself and boasting of her claim. "True enough." he said, still keeping an eye on everything, as he poured them both green tea, setting the cubs at the table before dishing up breakfast, egg fried rice with pork. "Eat up. You look like no one's fed you in a week." While his voice was not particularly full of praise at her achievement, he was nonetheless impressed at her determination. He laid the bowls down and took a seat facing opposite her. "While I appreciate the enthusiasm, could you perhaps make it a little more closer to the start of training next time? Also, do your parents know you're up at this time with the aim of sneaking into your Sensei's flat?" He smirked a little as he waited for a reply from her. She may have odd methods, but she meant well. Dubu: “You’d be surprised after seeing how much I usually eat.” Dubu snapped chopsticks apart, moved bowl closer to her and began to suck it all in, listening to her Sensei in the meantime. Nodding a little, she allowed herself some time to chew food before replying. “They know, in a way.” Tilting her head to the side, she tried remembering her last conversation with father, which was a very short one. “I told them I’m going to be up late, practising what you thought me. Then I got worried I’m going to burn the place down so I went to practice outside the house. It took me…” Squinting her left eye, she brought her face up the ceiling, trying to remember what time she actually finished. “I was done around one in the morning, tried going to sleep but just couldn’t. Since my parents don’t wake up till around nine in the morning anyway, I figured I could just jump in my clothes and do something productive with my free time.” She swallowed another pork piece, looking up at her Sensei curiously. “So with the ashes I have been travelling up and down the village since four in the morning. I was so buzzed about it, you have no idea.” She muffled with mouth full and once again looking him up, then down at herself. He was very healthy looking, and muscular where she was very fragile looking. It annoyed her that she couldn’t gain weight, despising how much she tried her metabolism was always that one step further than her. “What we going to do today then, Sensei?” She asked, as she got up and placed the squeaky ‘clean’ bowl in the sink and ran some water through it. HayateUzumaki: So she had been up all night practicing? There was a fine line between determination and stupidity and........she almost crossed it. He could not help but be proud of her, for there were few others he could think of who would take that amount of determination and use it truthfully. He watched Dubu as she wolfed down her meal, rolling his eyes and depositing his bowl in the sink. "Well, before we do anything, we're going to sort out you clothes." He got to his feet, motioning her to follow him, picking up her wet clothes along the way. He slotted each item over the towel rack and looked to her. "So. Using what you learned yesterday, I want you to dry your clothes. For one, you can't train in a thin kimono. And two, I would like my clothes back." He went to the airing cupboard and began to place the rest of his outfit on while speaking to her. "Remember, visualise a constant and clam flame. Feel your body warm itself through the chakra. Once the heat comes off your hands, then you will be able to dry your clothes a lot faster than normal." Dubu: Placing the clean bowl into the dish dryer, she followed him close by as he walked back to the bathroom. She once again arched her eyebrows at him. “Same thing? I BURNED LEAF BY THE WAY! What if I burn my clothes too?” She could imagine his ‘not so impressed’ look right then, so she decided it was time to shut her gob and get her poker face on. With a soft puff escaping her peachy lips, she walked closer to the clothes that were now hanging up. Dubu closed her eyes and slowly before here was the little flame that she was now controlling the flow of. She watched it slowly getting brighter and bigger before her closed eyes as her skin began to slowly heat up. Blindly reaching her hand out, she managed to grip onto her trousers as she felt the fabric heat up under her hand and slowly dry. It was a strange feeling to say the least. Gasping slightly when she felt the fabric going a bit too warm now, she opened her eyes immediately and lost her concentration, looking at now wearable pants. “I’m on a roll today.” She smirked slightly, doing the same thing to the rest of her clothes. When she was finally done, without any previous warning she threw the Kimono at Hayate Sensei, and dressed into her original outfit. Pulling the red scarf a little forward, so that it wasn’t chocking her she began to speak up. “Right. Done.” With a cheesy and confident grin on her face she faced her Sensei. “Could I just ask? You seemed quite… well, very distant when I first knocked on the window. Is everything alright?” Squinting her eyes at him, she waited for answer but on the other hand she expected him to just shush her and hurry her to the training ground with matter of seconds. HayateUzumaki: He watched closely as she placed her hands against the wet clothing, seeing a faint outline of her chakra. While she was doing so, he continued with his outfit, doing up the various straps and zips, before tying his hair up into his usual ponytail. "Keep it steady." he said, as he washed his face in the sink, before he was suddenly hit with his kimono, placing it back in the cupboard. He turned round to see her gleaming at him with her usual grin, her clothes all fresh. "Right, better. See how you can use your chakra as little life shortcuts?" As she asked about his earlier episode, he waved her off, heading for the kitchen table. "It's nothing. We'll be out in a minute, hold on." With that, he bit his thumb and slammed his palm down own the table. "Karasu Shi No Jutsu." A brief cloud of smoke exploded then died down, revealing Shi, Hayate's crow he carried on his shoulder. Shi began to walk round the table, keeping a beady eye on Dubu, as Hayate went to the cupboard and fetched some birdseed, placing it on the table for Shi. The bird pecked down at the food as Hayate leant against a counter. Having only just learnt how to burn a leaf, he didn't want to start her on teaching ninjutsu just yet. Hmmm. "Right, let's get off." Shi finished eating, hopping up onto Hayate's shoulder, as Hayate walked to the front door and opened it. This would be the first time he had actually walked a fair distance in....years. As he and Dubu made their way along the streets, they made their way past Isegkei's flat. Hayate couldn't help but send Shi up through the window, soon hearing a loud scream for inside. He chuckled as Shi made his way back and the two carried on towards the training ground. Dubu: Dubu couldn’t help but to stare at the damn bird the whole way. It was, as every said, creepy and weird. With a slight glare she watched the bird fly off, stopping for a moment until it came back from whatever he was doing. With a slight chuckle at the scream that came out from the flat, Dubu hurried over to catch up with her Sensei. What was up with that bird anyway? Staring at it a little longer, she managed to dodge the tree she was about to hit with matter of second. With a rather shocked face she shook her head and stopped just outside the training grounds. “So, Sensei.” She began, tilting her head over to the side a little. “Where do we start today? Maybe some punches and kicks?!Using some weapons?! OH! OH! I KNOW! Maybe I could finally start creating some fireballs?! And stuff…” She grew quieter as she noticed that everyone else was present yet, just the two of them. It was very weird, seeing training grounds empty like that. She used to almost every time be late for her training classes. Hell, all classes she attended. Soft puff came out from her lips as she stepped through the gate and onto the empty field. HayateUzumaki: As usual, Shi attracted looks. Many people often stared at the crow as Hayate walked through the streets. It was a shame so few knew that Hayate carried Shi around as a second pair of eyes and ears. He was actually very useful for anything involving recon or spying on people. Or just disturbing them. After all, a crow was a creature linked with darkness. Shi after all, meant Death. They arrived in the empty training grounds, the only other noise the rain as they stepped into the centre of the field. As much as he admired Dubu's enthusiasm, she could often get ahead of herself. "No, and no, and definitely not. You've only just managed to figure out how to burn a leaf. You're certainly not ready for fireballs. I wanted to test you on something new. So you have worked out how to apply chakra through your hands. While that is good in itself, as a shinobi, you should seek to have full chakra control over your entire body." He walked over to the stone circle in the middle of the field, a large body of water within it. Stepping over the stone outer rim, as his feet touched the water he remained atop it, instead of falling in as would be the physical law. "By focusing your chakra to your feet, you maintain the abilities of balance, stability and suction. Using this technique, you will be able to walk on water, walk up walls and so on. A very good technique for spying, or trying to stay hidden. Or simply to walk across bodies of water or getting to what would seem to be inaccessible places." Dubu: Her head lowered down further and further as he kept replying no to her questions. Finally pouting like a kiddo, she followed him over to the stone circle and watched. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she brought her left hand up to her face and bit gently onto the tip of her thumb. “You want me to do that?” She muttered with disbelieve. It was as if he thought her one thing, then expected her to do something completely different with the knowledge. With deep sigh, she jumped up onto the stone wall and watched his feet just… there; on top of the water. Mind you, she has seen this technique lot of times, but never fully understood how it works. Sniffing back with her still runny nose she gently dipped the tip of her shoe in the water, but then backed away in an instant. “Forget it. It’s cold. I’m gonna be ill with matter of days at this rate.” Shaking her head she just looked up at him with a bit of disbelieve on her face. “I hate water anyway.” She hissed at the end, looking back down at his feet. HayateUzumaki: Her miniature tantrum was at the least entertaining. "Well then. When you are forced into a situation where you have to navigate a body of water quickly, you will be at a severe disadvantage. But I suppose we can try that later." Walking across the water and back onto dry land, he looked around. "Alright, same principle. I want you to try scaling that tree. And by scaling, I mean walking up it, horizontally." He walked towards the tree in question, and placing his right foot first, began to walk up the tree, until he got to a large branch and walked into the middle of it, hanging upside down and staring at Dubu with his one visible eye. "You should learn to expel chakra from your feet as soon as possible. While not the easiest technique ever, it will be one of your most used ones. Every shinobi worth his salt has mastered this, and uses it to full effect." He paused for a moment. "Every time you get to your highest reachable point, use your kunai to make a mark. That way, you can monitor your progress. Remember, focus your chakra, and send it down your body to your feet." Dubu: Skipping off the stone, she once against just fallowed with her hands behind her back. She could see that he wasn’t amazed by her little scene, but she couldn’t care less. She wasn’t going to get any more soaked today even if it meant a death of a puppy. “Right, I’m sure this one I can handle.” Looking as he was upside down now, she couldn’t help but to stare at him and how silly he looked, making her chuckle a little. Immediately after she shook her head and pointed finger in front of her nose. “Focus, damn it.” She turned away from Hayate Sensei and faced tree. “Just walk up it. Right.” She muttered, suddenly charging at it with some speed to it. She managed to run up it, as she felt her feet slip off the wet wood, landing on her back with a loud bang. Moaning and groaning, she sat up and looked up at her Sensei. “Don’t… don’t laugh.” Hissing out, she got up and slowly placed her foot against tree with small, if any succession of her foot staying in place. She finally gave up, sniffing back some boogies she stood straight and close her eyes. “Sensei. It’s my second try. If I do it now, will I get a price?” With a cheeky smirk on her face, she the bottom of her feet sticking to the ground like a glue. First step was successful, as it stayed on the wood without slipping. Second. Third. Fourth. She about reached the branch that her Sensei was dangling off when she opened her eyes. “I DID IT!!” When suddenly: CRASH! Back on her back with a loud and painful growl. HayateUzumaki: Hayate watched as Dubu ran with full pelt at the tree, only for her to hit it and full off. her command not to laugh only made it all the funnier. He gave a small chuckle and a smirk as her rested from his perch, carelessly hanging from the branch as he watched her repeat her goal. While not the most gifted shinobi he had come across, Dubu could not be faulted on her enthusiasm or her will. Then again, she was a Sarutobi, and they were renowned for their stubbornness. As he kept an eye on her, he pulled out her file, looking over it again. Nothing mentioned about her lineage in particular. Interesting. "So, I'm curious. While I know a bit about you, there's always room to learn more. I wonder.....would you happen to be related to the Third, or maybe Asuma? Of Konoha?" It would be interesting to see what her later second element was. If by any chance it turned out to be lightning.......well. Then it would make her his most compatible pupil. He watched as she triumphantly cried out.....before falling again. He dropped down next to her and pulled her up. "Hmm....." He looked from her to the tree before walking over to it and placing his hand on it. After several moments, his chakra began to snake from his hands, wrapping itself around the tree, slowly drying the bark due to the heat. "There. Try now it's not so wet." Dubu: “You didn’t tell me about your morning, Sensei. Why do you think I would be sharing my family ties with you, then?” She looked at him briefly, just to feel stupid and ashamed of her words. Her cheeks turning the usual red colour, she turned her head to face the tree in a snap. “S-Sorry, Sensei. I shouldn’t have said it.” Bowing over at the man, she just quietly went back over to where she stood before, putting on her concentration face. It was going to be a long way to becoming a Chunnin, but she was sure she could make it with a matter of time. For now, focus on the present – that’s what she kept telling herself, to make sure she didn’t get anxious about the future. With a calm and collected breath in and out, she tried one more time, slowly making step by step up the tree trunk and slowly feeling the bend of a branch coming, just to find herself stuck in an awkward position. Opening up her eyes, she didn’t fall off this time, but just hanged there horizontally to the ground. “What if I fall off with my head upside down?” Tilting her head back, she looked down on her Sensei just to find the shameful feeling still there. “I think Asume was… is my grand-grand… and so on grandpa, but my parents never spoken of any other family other than the three of us.” She quickly mumbled with a straight face and a shrug of shoulders. HayateUzumaki: "Interesting. I can see that. You certainly have the same stubbornness he was rumoured to have." It sounded a fairly sore subject for her, so he'd leave it at that. After all, she should be concentrating at the task in hand. Seeing her stationary as she stood sideways in connection with the tree. She never failed to impress him, despite how immature she could be towards things at first. "Well in case you haven't noticed, you seem to have the basic grasp of it." He saw people starting to arrive in the field. So they had been at this for almost 2 hours? Oh well, practice makes perfect. "Now, take in mind that if you can transfer the chakra to your feet to stick to the tree, you can do it with water. Well. With the exception that with water, you don't want to be focusing on sucking yourself into it. As you'll fall in." Dubu: It’s been already a long time on this and Dubu was slowly getting irritated by the whole thing, but she didn’t let it show. Putting on her poker face on she continued to circle the pond slowly on stone wall and after couple of steps she stopped, leaning over the edge just enough to see her own reflection in it. Little puff came from her lips as she shook her thick fringe a little, brushing it out of her face and it all was happening while Hayate was talking. It’s not that she didn’t respect him, it’s just the fact that she was getting bored of this. “I’m not gonna get far without this, am I?” She knew the answer, obviously no. How else did she expect to be a true Shinobi if she didn’t master this technique. Not even waiting for her answer she began to slowly trace her foot against surface of water, gently and slowly setting her foot on it with a calm and collected look on her face. When her other foot was set on the surface she looked up at her sensei and shrugged her shoulders slightly. “I don’t know what was I-..” Just as she was about to finish her concentration went as she fell into the pond and lost her balance, falling right into the pond. Her face changed 180 degrees to that of an annoyed kid. Letting out a loud growl from her throat she pushed some water out of the pond, splashing her Sensei in the process. Shaking her head a little she rose her shoulders up again and smirked. “I’m not even sorry.” HayateUzumaki: It seemed like she was getting the hang of it, for all the complaining she did earlier. "No. You aren't. One of the key principles of any shinobi is being able to expel chakra from any part of their body to aid them in any circumstance. As I said earlier, if you master this technqiue, you will be able to run across water, scale mountains with your bare feet and so on. If you can't do this, or rather, won't, then.....you won't be getting far with anything." He watched as she traced her foot on the surface of the water, hoping that she'd finally listened enough to succeed. But hope it seemed as usual, did not make for an astounding pupil. She suddenly fell straight in and emerged with a face like thunder, splashing water onto him. "Well now." he said, looking at her. "Seems the little firecracker isn't quite up for the job. What did I tell you would happen if you didn't concentrate?" Dubu: “I would fall in.” She huffed and puffed again, picking herself up and this time around using her fire control she dried herself off with matter of seconds, dragging herself back onto stone wall. “It would have been a lot easier if someone didn’t talk all the time…” She looked up at him with a cheeky grin on her lips, after what she closed her eyes and with matter of another second or two, she was in the air, full on jumping into the water. At first, she herself thought that she was just going to go through thr surface and back into the cold water but to her surprise her feet stopped right at the surface. Looking down at her feet it was a natural response that for some reason she reached out her hands to keep her balance. It was totally unneeded but she did it anyway. Slowly standing straight she managed to keep on the surface for longer than a minute now. Slowly shuffling her feet along she managed to turn around to face her Sensei with one of her famous grins. “Eh? Eh? Am I good or what?” When suddenly her feet began to wiggle under her weight she quickly hurried back to stone wall, gripping onto it with her hands and jumping over it back onto solid ground. HayateUzumaki: "You would fall in." he echoed her, rolling his eyes. For someone so stubborn and talkative, at least she took note of what people said. He watched as she dried herself then tried again, leaping into the centre of the water. And this time, somewhat miraculously, she landed without falling in. Hayate smirked behind his mask as she started grinning and bragging. "That'll do Dubu." She ran back to the out circle as her legs began to quiver and Hayate shook his head while chuckling to himself. "Well, I suppose a congratulations is in order at some point. I would offer to buy you dinner as a treat, but then again, I did make you breakfast this morning. So, your reward can be the knowledge that you've accomplished the first step. But we'll continue tomorrow. I have somewhere I need to be. Keep practicing, you'll get the hang of it." Without giving her time to reply, he burst into the usual flurry of crows, leaving her to watch as they flew off towards the tower. The crows landed in through an open window and quickly formed themselves back into Hayate as he made his way towards his father's office. Two down, one to go. Ichigo Uzumaki. Hayate's own little brother. This would be fun. End Result After having been a little too over enthusiastic, Dubu learnt how to expel her chakra from her feet in order to scale a tree and walk on water.